Hijinks Inc.

Month: July 2010

  • I know a guy who knows a guy…

    When you know somebody trying to gain exposure, you try to help them out whenever you can. Fred brought you the last video, and now Mike Tompkins has released another solid entry to his library of covers. In case you missed the last one, he only uses his mouth and voice (and usually 1 other item, just not this time) to create his music.

    Even though the songs he usually picks I don’t care for, his versions are catchy,  the videos are fun, and this one is no exception. Be sure to check out his facebook and twitter pages for more info about him.

    Check out his YouTube channel if you like it and want to see some of his other work.

  • 500 Internal Server Error with WordPress 3.0

    500 Internal Server Error with WordPress 3.0

    Recently I finally got around to upgrading this site (and several others) to WordPress 3.0 and everything went smoothly until I tried to login to my admin page, where I was greeted by this lovely message:

    Error 500 – Internal server error
    An internal server error has occurred!
    Please try again later.

    Wonderful.

    Turns out that this error was caused by the way my host, 1&1, parses PHP files and while it’s rather annoying, it’s at least relatively easy to fix. I should note that technically WordPress 3.0 also shares some of the blame, as it requires parts be run through PHP5 (1&1 by default uses PHP 4 to parse scripts).

    Here’s how to fix it…
    (more…)

  • Hijinks Reviews: Splinter Cell Conviction

    Splinter Cell Conviction, a long overdue game, but was it worth the wait? Well, considering the game has been out since April 13, this review is long overdue, so maybe I don’t have any room to talk.

    The saga of the release date was one of epic proportions. Pushed back more times than any game I can remember, I hardly believed the release date until I walked into Blockbuster and it was waiting for me on the shelf. But once I got home and began this journey, I was very happy with what I found.

    The game touted “A New Level of Splinter Cell Action”, a “Blockbuster Experience”, “Jaw Dropping Visuals”, and Xbox LIVE Play plus a Co-op Story Mode to boot… it delivered on all accounts. If you’ve ever played a Splinter Cell game, you know what to expect in this one. Stealthy movements, a lot of watching and timing your attacks, gadgets… all your regular super-spy fare. And that’s exactly what it is, only it’s so much more. (more…)

  • Juice Up Your Battery Life!

    If there’s a consistent complaint among most Android phones, it’s the battery life. Especially as the screens get larger and higher-resolution, the battery life continues to shrink (I’m looking at you, Droid Incredible!). While there are some options for higher capacity batteries on the market, I’m going to go over some ways you can extend the life of the battery you’ve got.

    To discover where your battery issues lie, the first thing you need to do is see what’s eating up your battery. I recommend checking this after you’ve run your battery down most of the way on a normal day of use. To check your battery use, go to your Android Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use. You should see a screen that looks something like mine. This screen will tell you how long your phone has been unplugged and what applications are using the most battery. Depending on how you use your phone, you can expect to see things like the Display and Phone calls toward the top of the list. If you have any installed applications using much more than 2-3% of your battery (depending on your usage), you might want to see if they have any settings that might reduce their impact. (more…)

  • Firefox 4 Beta 2 Has Dropped

    Firefox 4 Beta 2 Has Dropped

    The latest beta version of Firefox 4 is now available for public consumption, just in time to break all those add-ons that were just updated for Beta 1, but such is the price you pay for running the latest software.

    Go ahead, live vicariously through beta software. You know you want to.

    You can grab Firefox 4 Beta 2 from this page.